Samaria and Judah in an Early 8th-Century Assyrian Wine List

Abstract

A Judahite envoy is probably mentioned alongside an Israelite envoy in one of the Wine Lists from Nimrud (Calah) dated to the 780s BCE—that is, the time of Jeroboam II. This reference antedates by about 50 years the earliest available mention of Judah in extra-biblical sources. In light of the enmity between Israel and Judah during the time of Joash and Amaziah, the article examines the significance of the new evidence for evaluating the relations of the two kingdoms at the time of Jeroboam II (786–746 BCE) and Uzziah (788–737 BCE).

Keywords:

• Nimrud wine lists
• Adad-nirari III
• Samaria
• Judah
• Jeroboam II
• Uzziah

Notes

1 I am grateful to my colleague Prof. Yoram Cohen who carefully read the Assyriological part of the article and made numerous useful suggestions.

2 The abbreviations NWL (Nimrud Wine Lists) and TFS (Tablets from Fort Shalmaneser) followed by numbers (e.g., NWL 1; TFS 135) refer to the numbers of the tablets as they appear in the text editions of Kinnier-Wilson (1972) and Dalley and Postgate (1984).

3 For discussion of the text of TFS 135, see Dalley and Postgate 1984: 246–247; Deller 1985: 328–330; Weippert 1987: 100, n. 36.

4 Radner (2019: 117) demonstrated that TFS 121 was written in the time of Sargon II.

5 For the place names and ethnic origin of the envoys, see Dalley and Postgate 1984: 281–282.

6 For Israelites and Judahites in the Neo-Assyrian documentation, see Zadok 2015.

7 For a transcription and translation of NWL 8, see Fales 1994: 371–374; Younger 2003.

8 For the reading ˹^mE˺-[bu-ra]-a-a in NWL 1 iii 1, see Parpola 1976: 167.

9 For the suggestion to derive the name Judah from the north-Arabian wahda (‘gorge’ or ‘ravine’), see Lipiński 1973.

10 According to 2 Kings 14:21, “Then all the people of Judah took Azariah, who was sixteen years old, and made him king to succeed his father Amaziah”. The formula of coronation is ideological rather than historical; it is intended to emphasize the support of the people () for the young enthroned king.

11 For the Assyrian campaign against Damascus and the tribute that Ḫadiānu paid to Assyria in 773 BCE, see Donbaz 1990: 17–24; Timm 1993; Grayson 1996: 239–240; Hasegawa 2012: 134–137.